Prestigious Lean Award to Kongsberg Automotive

Kongsberg Automotive (KA) Raufoss Couplings has won Norway’s prestigious Lean Award 2012, together with Hydro Aluminium Karmøy. The award, to companies that have excelled in efficiency and improvement, was presented today by Norway’s Deputy Minister for Trade and Industry, Jeanette Iren Moen, at Lean Forum Norway's annual conference.

Lean methodology and thought focuses on streamlining businesses and continuous improvement, and is about removing waste in production processes or supply chains.

This focus and mindset is important for KA Raufoss Couplings, which makes couplings in brass and composite materials for commercial vehicles globally, due to relatively high salary costs in Norway and global competition.

Results through Lean have been significant for KA Raufoss Couplings. In just a few years the plant reduced its stock by half, increased productivity significantly and more than halved the number of customer complaints. KA Raufoss Couplings, which has more than 190 employees is also among the top Lean achievers in the Kongsberg Automotive group, which has more than 30 factories worldwide.

“Lean is not just a project but has become a way of working. We are proud of our efforts and the results we have achieved together, but we also look forward to becoming even better ahead,” said Torodd Rande, plant manager at KA Raufoss Couplings

“The award is important and well-deserved recognition of the hard work to implement lean in the organization and our business. With more than 50 years in the automotive industry, lean is important to KA and we congratulate  our colleagues at Raufoss Couplings on their achievements and dedication to continuous improvement,” said Hans Peter Havdal, CEO of Kongsberg Automotive